Home › View all posts by Mark Frankel › Page 9

Author: Mark Frankel

The One Minute Shavuous

Posted on by — 13 Comments ↓

I have the good fortune to keep in touch online and offline with many non-observant friends from my childhood. Before Pesach a few of them were in search of a 2-5 minute seder, so I cut down the Beyond BT Guide to the Seder to it’s bare bone essentials using the logic that any mitzvah performed is a good thing.

If non-observant people are only willing to give 2-5 minutes for Pesach, then 60 seconds seemed about the right amount of time for the less familiar holiday of Shavuos.

Here is the first incarnation of the “60 Second Guide to Shavuos”. Comments and critiques are welcome and if you think it’s useful please send it to your friends and family:


Creation of the World and Man
– There is a G-d, who is completely spiritual
– G-d created physical and spiritual worlds
– G-d created man who is half spiritual and half physical for a purpose
– Man’s purpose is to transform the physical world into a spiritual G-d connected world

The Receiving of Torah
– To accomplish this spiritual transformation, G-d transmitted the knowledge and tools in the form of the Torah
– The spiritual encounter of receiving the Torah was experienced to some degree by the entire Jewish People and to a greater degree by Moses
– The holiday of Shavuos is a celebration of this most profound spiritual encounter between G-d and Mankind

The Role of Torah
– The role of the Torah is to help us understand and create spiritual realities
– Every act we perform has spiritual ramifications, and the acts which have the greatest power to transform the physical into the spiritual are the mitzvos specified in the Torah
– Our commitment for Shavuos is to learn about the spiritual realities described in the Torah and to dedicate ourselves to achieving the world’s purpose by performing the spiritual acts necessary to achieve that goal

In addition to learning Torah which can be accomplished by reading the above post, try to enjoy a special meal at night and during the day.

Thanking our Torah Teachers

Posted on by — 46 Comments ↓

I just spent 4 days at the Torah U’Mesorah convention selling, InfoGrasp, my companies School and Non Profit Management Software. It was a great experience, especially on Shabbos when 1,500 Jews shared an amazingly uplifting G-d and Torah connecting experience powered by non-stop talks and lectures by some of the greatest Rebbeim in America. With that background information, I’d like to share an insight I gained over the weekend.

Over 15 years ago at a parlor meeting, a seasoned and well respected teacher related a talk he gave at Torah U’Mesorah in which he pointed out some classroom obstacles which often caused Rebbeim to stumble. He ended his talk at the parlor meeting saying that the people at the convention didn’t exactly appreciate his criticisms as evidenced by the fact that he was never invited back. For many years I accepted his story at face value, and I’ve seen first hand the obstacles of which he spoke.

This year, I asked a few attendees why they were at the convention and all of them included the need for chizuk (strengthing) among their answers. As I listened to the speeches I became more sensitive to the plight of our Torah teachers. They’re paid very low wages. They often have to move to a different city. They have to teach to a wide ability-range of students in the classroom. And many or most of our schools don’t have the financial resources to provide them with the support that almost all other teachers, public and private, receive.

The speeches focused on the wonderful task the teachers were performing, despite the above mentioned obstacles with many techniques of how to become better. There were sessions on a wide range of topics and the teachers listened attentively and questioned in their attempts to become better transmitters of our Mesorah. They were encouraged not to be discouraged and one of the last Shabbos speakers sounded these echoing words, “Please don’t go into the business sector, Klal Yisroel needs you”.

The whole event turned around my view of the parlor meeting. Yes there’s room for improvement, yes mistakes are made, but at their core, our generation of teachers have dedicated their heart and soul to teaching our children Torah and we must stand up, recognize and applaud them. The teachers at the convention didn’t applaud themselves for their efforts, but they really do need our support and we should try to make is vocal. At least once a year at the convention, there needs to be no constructive criticism and the talk is about the good and the trying to be better.

So next time you see a teacher, perhaps you can muster up the strength to thank them. Surprise them and thank them with no follow up request or constructive criticism. It’s a very tough job they’ve chosen and they’re truly are built up by our appreciation. The more we stengthen them, the more they can endeavor in the Jewish people’s most important mission, teaching Hashem’s Torah to every Jew.

The Centrality of Appreciating Hashem’s Hashgachah

Posted on by

The Rambam’s 13 principles of faith can be grouped into three:
– Belief in G-d
– Belief in Prophecy
– Belief in Hashgachah
The Ramchal structures the first three sections of Derech Hashem along these lines with the fourth section emphasing Serving G-d.

The famous Ramban at the end of Parshas Bo details how Yetzias Mitzrayim provides clear evidence of these three principals:
“The supernatural wonders indicate the world has a G-d who created it, knows all, oversees all and is all powerful. And when that wonder is publicly declared beforehand through a prophet, the truth of prophecy is made clear as well, namely that G-d will speak to a person and reveal His secrets to His servants, the prophets, and with acknowledgment of this the entire Torah is sustained.”

In his Shabbos Hagadol shiur, Rabbi Welcher pointed out that after the Hagadah focuses on Hashem’s Hashgachah, we thank Hashem with 2 perakim of Hallel and continue with the Matzah which according to some Achronim is representative of the Todah offering. The meal can be considered part (or subservient to) the “Matzah Offering” and this is perhaps why it is not considered an interruption of the Hallel.

Rabbi Welcher also pointed out that the Hodaah in Tefillah makes Hashem’s presence more real than the more abstract Shevach and Bakosha components.

Although Yetzias Mitzrayim illustrates all three principals it our thanks for Hashem’s Hashgacha which is our focus and our primary means of connecting to Hashem.

It might be instructive to focus on the Hodaah of the seder with the intent of using that as a springboard to uncover and focus on Hashem’s Hashgacha through out the year. In this way we can continually increase our Hashem consciousness, which the Ramchal points out is the root purpose of all the mitzvos.

Wishing the entire Beyond BT community a Chag Kosher V’Someach.

Creating a Consciousness of Connection

Posted on by

One of the problems we face is a lack of support and connection. There are many different needs: jobs, housing, spouses, advice, friendship and in our increasingly busy world there seems to be a shortage of people to turn to.

A first step is to try to create a consciousness of connection and caring. We’re not all in the position to run big projects but we’re all in the position to take small steps to collectively address the problem.

Some of the best advice I’ve heard on this subject is from Rebbetzin Heller, who points out that creating connection involves asking ourselves two questions when we’re talking to someone:
1) What can I learn from this person?
2) What can I give to this person?

Everybody has knowledge, insights and perspectives that we don’t have and that they want to share. All we have to do is listen and learn and in the process we not only gain from what they teach, but we also create a connection to the person.

Giving comes in many shapes and sizes like finding someone a job, making a shidduch, giving advice, giving compliments, building confidence or just having a listening ear. Giving is the great connection generator and if we just raise our awareness of what’s involved, we can create the bonds we all want and need.

One of the foremost experts on behavior change suggests the follow steps to create new habits:
1) Make it tiny – simplify the behavior
2) Find a spot in your routine where this tiny behavior can fit in
3) Train the cycle – do it every day

If once a day we approach a person with the consciousness of learning and/or giving we can grow this habit and create beneficial connections for ourselves and all the people we come in contact with.

One of the things we want to do through Beyond BT is host live events where people can connect with one another. The next one is an Oneg scheduled this Shabbos, February 11 from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm in Kew Gardens Hills. We encourage everybody in Kew Gardens Hills this Shabbos to stop by. It’ll give you a great opportunity to work on your new learning/giving/connecting habit.

Parsha Bo

Posted on by

Here’s Rabbi Rietti’s outline of Bo. You can purchase the entire outline of the Chumash here.

After you read the Parsha, take a look at the last Ramban, which many consider one of the most important Rambans in the Chumash.

Bo
# 10 Locusts – Darkness:
# 11 Warning: Death of First Born: 
# 12 Laws of Korban Pesach – Death First Born – The Exodus
# 13 Separate Every First-Born Man & Animal

# 10 Locusts – Darkness:
* The Purpose of the Plagues: To tell your future generations of the wonders
then you will know I am The Eternal G-d.
* Warning of Locusts
* Pharaohs’ servants complain:
* Pharaoh & Aron are called back to the palace
* Pharaoh asks who is going? “Everyone” “No! You Go on my terms!”
* Pharaoh throws them out the palace
* Plague of Locusts
* Pharaoh again admits his guilt:
* Moshe prays
* West wind blows every last locust away
* HaShem hardens his heart:
* Plague of Darkness
* Pharaoh agrees on condition they leave behind their livestock
* Moshe replies, “Even you will give us animals for offerings”
* HaShem hardens his heart:
* Pharaoh warns Moshe never to be seen again, Moshe agrees

# 11 Warning: Death of First Born:
* ‘Just one more plague and then Pharaoh will let you go’
* Moshe is instructed to tell Jews to borrow vessels of silver & gold
* ‘About midnight HaShem will strike down your first-born’
* ‘Pharaoh will not take heed so I can display My abundant Wonders’

# 12 Laws of Korban Pesach – Death First Born – The Exodus
* The first Mitzva: Sanctify the new moon.

Laws of the Korban Pesach:
* Slaughter the Pascal Lamb in the afternoon of erev Pesach.
* Place its blood on the doorposts of Jewish homes
* Eat Pascal Lamb completely roasted with Matza & Marror.
* Don’t eat the Pascal Lamb cooked.
* Don’t leave any meat of Pascal Lamb remaining till the morning.
* Eat it ready to leave, your loins girded, sandals on feet and staffs in hand
* I will Pass over Egypt and smite every firstborn, human male and animal
* I alone will smite the gods of Egypt
* Blood on your doorposts will be a sign for Me to Passover your homes
* This night will be observed as a celebration forever
* Destroy all Chametz from your home before Pesach.
* Eat Matza on the first night.
* Don’t own any Chametz.
* Don’t own any mixture of Chametz.
* How to answer your son (the rasha) when he asks about these rituals
* All the Jews did the rituals of the Korban Pesach exactly as instructed

* The plague of the Death of the First-born struck at exactly midnight
* Pharaoh awoke, not one Egyptian home was without a death toll
* Pharaoh begged Moshe & Aron to leave exactly as they had requested
* “And bless me too!”
* The Jews emptied out Egypt
* The Jews traveled from Ramses to Sukkot – 120 Miles in under 18 mins.
* 600,000 men between 20-60, beside children & the ‘Eruv Rav’ & livestock
* They left with mere Matzot cakes
* Jews had been enslaved for a total of 430 years

More Laws of Pesach:
* No alien can eat the Pascal Lamb.
* Circumcised gentile servant (no immersion) cannot eat.
* Don’t eat the Pascal Lamb outside of the designated group.
* Don’t break any of its bones.
* No uncircumcised person can eat it.

# 13 Separate Every First-Born Man & Animal
* Separate every first-born male man and animal.
* Remember The Exodus

More Laws of Pesach:
* Don’t eat Chametz for 7 days.
* Don’t let any Chametz be seen in your domain.
* Tell the story of the Exodus to your children.
* Separate all first born of your livestock.
* Every first-born donkey redeem with a sheep.
* If you do not redeem the donkey, decapitate it.
* Every 1st born male child redeem with 5 Sela of silver.
* How to answer the child who asks about Pesach,
* Tefilin on the arms and head

The Spiritual Magnificence of Snow

Posted on by

New Yorkers were treated to their first snow storm of the season last Sunday. After the storm, it was a beautiful sight and it was good packing snow for snow balls and snow men, but it presented a very real set of challenges. My wife and I had two weddings (among the five that were schedule in Kew Gardens Hills alone), one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx, and it was quite an adventure. The plowing of the streets was the worse we’ve seen in decades, possibly due to a work slow down by the NYC Sanitation Department in protest of budget cuts.

By Thursday the street were navigable and Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, gave a shiur at Congregation Ahavas Yisroel about Inyanei D’Yoma (relevant topic of the day), namely the Halachos of Snow. It was an amazing shiur, which you can download here, highlighting that in addition to the snow on the ground, the abstraction of snow is also a beautiful sight.

The Ramchal in the Book of Logic teaches us that the labor of the intellect is to see things as they really are, but we often make mistakes and come to false conclusions. The two most basic functions of the mind in the quest for knowledge are the activities of comparison and differentiation. Mistakes can occur in either one of these two activities, when we compare things that are not similar or differentiate things which are not really different.

This is where snow as an abstraction is so fascinating as Rabbi Schachter gave us a whirlwind tour of some of the issues involved when we compare and differentiate the realities of snow in various circumstances. I mentioned the snow was great for packing, so one of the questions we can ask is whether our construction of a snow man on Shabbos would be considered building or not?

Another question is in what ways is snow similar to water. We know that a collection of water in a Mikveh has certain spirtual properties in that it can remove spiritual impurity. What happens if you had a Mikveh filled with snow and you immersed yourself in it. Is it considered a body of water at rest on the ground like a mikveh filled with water or perhaps the nature of snow prevent it from acting as a collected body of water at rest?

As we walked through the streets in the aftermath of the storm the snow was packed solid and piled high. Is that packed snow considered an extension of the ground or not? To build an eruv, the marker has to be at 40 inches above the ground. When packed snow covers the ground do we measure from the top of the snow or do we measure from the ground?

Rabbi Schacter dealt with many more issues regarding the abstractions of snow and I highly recommend listening to the audio. The physical reality of snow presents one set of issues, but the abstraction of snow sheds an entirely different spotlight on this wondrous creation in Hashem’s world.

Chanukah – the Prototypical Baal Teshuva Holiday

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

What’s the prototypical Baal Teshuva holiday? Perhaps it’s Rosh Hoshana with it’s new beginning. Or Yom Kippur with it’s focus on Teshuva. Or the unparalleled joy available us on Succos. Or the rediscovering of true freedom on Pesach. Or the celebration of our new found wisdom in Torah on Shavous. Or partying for the sake of Heaven on Purim.

Let’s make the case for Chanukah. The Greeks opposed Judaism because it’s G-d centered viewpoint was in direct conflict with their nature centered perspective.

Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky explains:

The Greeks believed that the only reality is the physical reality of nature, and that nature was an absolute. If there is a drought, it is the result of natural cycles, and man has to wait out these natural cycles. If calamities befall the world, we search for geopolitical, economic, social, or psychological factors to explain them. G-d has no input in the world after its creation, and it is propelled by fixed forces.

The Jews believed that there is an ongoing relationship between G-d and man, and that the laws of nature are related to a spiritual reality. These two ideas are embodied in Shabbath and in Kiddush HaChodesh, sanctification of the New Moon. Shabbath, the seventh day, imbues the six days of creation with a Kedusha, an INTERNAL spiritual reality which the Greeks denied could exist. And Shabbat embodied a Brith, a covenant, between G-d and the Jewish people, testifying to a unique relationship that existed on an ongoing basis between them. Kiddush HaChodesh manifests man’s influence over the spiritual process. Without man’s input, there are holidays with no holiness. Man can actually create (hidden) spiritual reality.

Rabbi Karlinsky explains how the miracle of the oil brings home the message that the physical is rooted in the spiritual:

The Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash are the meeting places between infinite G-d who descends to manifest his presence in the finite world, and finite man who strives to elevate himself to the heights of an infinite G-d. It is the most tangible manifestation of the concept of “chibur elyon v’tachton,” the unification of the transcendent spiritual world with the material physical world.

But the challenge of a Jew is to reveal that unification in the ongoing functioning of the world, in nature, and in man himself.

The rising and setting sun, the rainfall, the birth of a baby, and all the daily events which we take for granted as “nature” are in fact as miraculous as a one-day quantity of oil burning for eight days. To answer the classic question of the Beit Yosef, we can understand the eight days of Chanukah as our declaration and as a revelation of the existence of Divine reality in every aspect of nature, an identity between the one day for which the oil burnt naturally and the seven days when the Menora burnt with no natural explanation. The days of miraculous burning were made possible through the recognition of that inner reality of the natural burning, a reality that truly exists only because of the unification of the Divine with physical matter. This is a reality not apparent when one looks only at the surface, limited to observable nature, represented by the number seven.

I think this is what attracts many BTs to Obsrvant Judaism. They sense that there’s something greater than the physical and when the portal of Torah introduces them to the world of the spiritual they know they’ve found the truth.

Unfortunately many ex-BTs don’t actually cross the threshold to the reality of spirituality through Torah, Tefillah and mitzvos so they retreat back into the world of the physical.

Chanukah is the prototypical holiday of the Baal Teshuva because it’s focus on the battle between the physical and the spiritual is familiar territory for us. It’s also our holiday because it keeps us aware that we need to continue to learn and progress in Torah, Tefillah and mitzvos to continue to hold on to that spiritual reality.

Do Teshuva Out of Love This Yom Kippur

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

Advantages of Doing Teshuva out of Love
In the Aryeh Kaplan Reader article titled Yom Kippur Thoughts – A Good Day for Repentance, Rabbi Kaplan points out the tremendous advantages of doing teshuva out of love versus out of fear:
1) Your sins become merits
2) You require no further atonement even though we can’t bring a Korban these days
3) You are immediately forgiven for all your sins, even those involving Koreis or Chillul Hashem

Teshuva out of Love is Very Possible in Our Generation
Rabbi Kaplan refutes the claim that many make that it is hard to reach this level with all the distraction we face these days. He believes that people today are more equipped to have a love of G-d than previous generations especially in our close-to-Moshiach times.

He points out that most Baalei Teshuva didn’t return because they had visions of Gehinnom before their eyes, but rather because they have a special love for Judaism and G-d.

Ideas on How to Do Teshuva out of Love
1) Set aside 15 minutes at the beginning of Yom Kippur and think about all G-d has done for us and the greatness of G-d’s deeds and works.
2) Recite the Shomoneh Esrai with strong kavanah on Yom Kippur, especially the first brocha which serves as a method of defining G-d to ourselves

The brocha use terms like “the great, might, awesome G-d”, If we say this brocha and all its words with concentration, carefully, slowly and thinking about the meaning of every word, will at the moment come to tremendous love for G-d.

He will think that “I love G-d so much. I want to be so close to Him. How could I have possibly sinned?” This will inevitable bring a person to Teshuva with love.

Go for It
The little skeptic inside us might be saying, “you can’t do Teshuva out of love”, but let’s use the power of the day of Yom Kippur to focus in the first brocha and to recognize G-d’s greatness which will lead to teshuva from love. We can do it and it really is what Hashem wants.

Some Random Thoughts on My Daughter and Son-in-law’s Upcoming Chasanah

Posted on by — 16 Comments ↓

Tonight’s the big night and we are grateful to Hashem for this joyous occasion. Here are some random thoughts:

– It is possible to go from engagement to Wedding date in under 10 weeks

– Getting your response cards in early is really appreciated

– Sending a check with the response card, if you’re planning on giving a gift is a great idea

– Just like there is a wonderful change in family configuration on the birth of a newborn, so to there is a wonderful change with the addition of a son-in-law

– Focusing on the tremendous simcha makes the occasion even more enjoyable and many people have advised us that is even more important on the night of the Chasanah

– Every marriage is part of the continuing chain of the Jewish People, so it is a simcha everybody can share

– The time, energy and effort going into the Chasanah is a wonderful celebration of the beginning of a new couple’s dedicated service to Hashem

– Extending the family with great Machatunim is a wonderful feeling

Finding a Seat When You’re a Guest in a Shul

Posted on by — 15 Comments ↓

On a Shabbos a few years ago, I was davening out of my neighborhood. As we walked into the Shul on Friday night, my host told me that we can sit anywhere, except in the aisle seats, because the more involved members of the Shul sat in those seats.

In the shul where I daven, we have Makom Kevuahs (reserved seating for Davening) and when people requested seats when we first move in, the aisle seats where the most requested and generally we allocated them to the more involved members. In both cases, involved members where the ones who volunteered most in the running of the Shul, or were members for the longest amount of time or were very generous in supporting the Shul.

I don’t think in either Shul, any guest would be asked to move if they took someone’s seat, whether they were involved members or not, but I think it makes sense that when you’re a guest in a Shul, not to take an aisle set unless you know the person who normally sits there won’t be there. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a rule that makes sense if you’re like most people and don’t want to unnecessarily upset a person to any degree by taking their seat.

What seat should you take? Well the best section in our shul is the one furthest from the door. As far as which seat, it’s generally a good idea to ask any member already in the Shul, informing them that you don’t want to take another person’s seat.

I think some people will respond to this idea that any Shul member should be accommodating to guests and not care that somebody is taking their seat. While that is true, I think there is also a case to be made that the guest should try to avoid taking a member’s seat if they can avoid it.

In summary, as a guest try to avoid sitting in someone’s seat and as a member if somebody does sit in your seat, don’t make them feel uncomfortable.

Some Approaches to Judging Others Favorably

Posted on by

We’re in the midst of the Three Week period leading up to Tisha B’Av and the Avodah (work) of this period is on Bein Adam L’Chaveiro (improving relations between man and his fellow). Here are some short thoughts on how to judge other people favorably. If you have any thoughts or ideas that have worked for you, please share them in the comments.

Focus on the Overall Good

Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz in Sichos Mussar points out that the Pasuk in Koheles says “There is no Tzaddik who only does good and doesn’t sin”. He takes this a step further and points out that even a positive act has some bad in it, yet nonetheless we can judge the overall act as good. We should try to identify and focus on the positive aspects of the actions people perform and judge there overall acts as positive.

There’s a Part of You in Every Jew

Rabbi Moshe Cordervo in the Tomer Devora describes the level of soul conceptualized as the collective Jewish soul. Every person has a piece of that soul so in reality there is a spiritual piece of every Jew in every other Jew. The mitzvah to love your fellow Jew is really self-love, for one’s fellow Jew is oneself on the collective soul level. As each of us contains a piece of each other’s soul, when my fellow Jew is better off so am I. This framework can help us love our fellow Jew.

Other Peoples Mistakes are More Accidental

In his Iggeres, the Ramban writes “Consider everyone as greater than yourself. If he is wise or rich, you should give him respect. If he is poor and you are richer — or wiser — than he, consider yourself to be more guilty than he, and that he is more worthy than you, since when he sins it is through error, while yours is deliberate and you should know better!” Less observant Jews don’t understand the obligations of the Torah to the degree we do, so relatively, their sins/mistakes are by accident, while ours are done on purpose. Knowing this should help us humble ourselves and judge others more favorably.

The Essence of All People is Good

In the third Bilvavi sefer, the author book points out that our souls are pure and our bodies are just garments. Identifying with our pure souls as opposed to our stained garments is at the root of true self-esteem and enables us to work on removing our stains from a healthy perspective. In the same way we can view ourselves from this aspect of purity, so to we can view our fellow Jews from this perspective. At their root, every Jew has a pure good soul and that is their essence, even when their acts or personalities are negative.

Recognizing the Greatness of a Small Act of Kindness

Posted on by — 10 Comments ↓

I’m not exactly sure why I was so struck by this act.

There are many times when we play the equivalent of musical chairs at Mincha. We’re all listening to the Chazzan repeat the Shmoneh Esrai and then it’s time to put our heads down for Tachanun, the next part of the prayer service. And often we find there are more men then chairs and somebody is left without a chair and has to improvise by putting his head on his arm standing up or waiting for a chair.

At the Yeshiva, where I usually daven Mincha, the guys will often give up their chair. But today it seemed different. The young man didn’t know me and the chair was right next to him and a short distance from me. But when it was time to say Tachanun he motioned for me to take the chair. I signaled that he should go first and I would use it afterwords and that’s what we did.

After davening I followed him out of shul and introduced myself and asked him his name. I told him his small gesture was an Act of Geulah, an Act of Redemption. When I related the story to my son, he said I shouldn’t have said anything. But the young man seemed to appreciate my appreciation and we went our separate ways.

From one point of view, what’s the big deal. I’m sure the majority of readers of Beyond BT would have done and probably have done this or something similar. And people have certainly done many small acts of kindness for me which I didn’t acknowledge in this way. But for some reason this act created a connection, and perhaps it wasn’t so much the act, but the recognition of it. I was able to put aside my own preoccupations and see the greatness of this fellow Jew doing the right thing and in the process create a bond between us.

There are three laws of Ahavas Yisroel
1) Speak well of your fellow Jew
2) Respect your fellow Jew
3) Care about their material and physical needs

The reason I’m relating this small story is because it showed me the power of Ahavas Yisroel and how it is the key to redemption. We have so many opportunities every day to fulfill this mitzvah and in the process become greater, not just because we did the mitzvah, but because we have created a bond and helped to add another brick to the building of a greater Klal Yisroel.

Building a Better Teacher

Posted on by — 12 Comments ↓

Issues in Schooling

One of the challenges that parents face is the schooling of our children. Among the many issues in schooling, three stand out:

1) Lots of material to master in a full dual curriculum day.

2) Many schools have insufficient resources.

3) A lack of truly great teachers.

Lack of Great Teachers is a Recognized Problem

Well it seems that a lack of great teachers is a problem shared across all American schools as discussed in a worth-reading article in the NY Times on Sunday titled Building a Better Teacher:

Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, found that while the top 5 percent of teachers were able to impart a year and a half’s worth of learning to students in one school year, as judged by standardized tests, the weakest 5 percent advanced their students only half a year of material each year.

You Can Build a Better Teacher

Creating incentives for good teachers and firing bad teachers is being tried across the country but it is not producing better learning in students. Doug Lemov a teacher and education consultant thinks the smarter path to boosting student performance is to improve the quality of the teachers who are already teaching.

Lemov decided to seek out the best teachers he could find — as defined partly by their students’ test scores — and learn from them. This five-year project produced a 357-page treatise known among its hundreds of underground fans as Lemov’s Taxonomy. (The official title, attached to a book version being released in April, is “Teach Like a Champion: The 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College.”)

Central to Lemov’s argument is a belief that students can’t learn unless the teacher succeeds in capturing their attention and getting them to follow instructions. Educators refer to this art, sometimes derisively, as “classroom management.”

All Lemov’s techniques depend on his close reading of the students’ point of view, which he is constantly imagining. In Boston, he declared himself on a personal quest to eliminate the saying of “shh” in classrooms, citing what he called “the fundamental ambiguity of ‘shh.’ Are you asking the kids not to talk, or are you asking kids to talk more quietly?” A teacher’s control, he said repeatedly, should be “an exercise in purpose, not in power.” So there is Warm/Strict, technique No. 45, in which a correction comes with a smile and an explanation for its cause — “Sweetheart, we don’t do that in this classroom because it keeps us from making the most of our learning time.”

After discussing Lemov and his techniques, the article goes further and asks: Is good classroom management enough to ensure good instruction? It discusses teachers who are focused on reaching every student such a Katie Bellucci, who had been teaching for only two months, yet her fifth-grade math class was both completely focused on her and completely quiet.

Lately Bellucci and her mentor teacher, Eli Kramer, a dean of curriculum and instruction at Troy who also splits fifth-grade math responsibilities with Bellucci, have advanced to a technique called No Opt Out. The concept is deceptively simple: A teacher should never allow her students to avoid answering a question, however tough. “If I’m asking my students a question, and I call on somebody, and they get it wrong, I need to work on how to address that,” Bellucci explained in February. “It’s easy to be like, ‘No,’ and move on to the next person. But the hard part is to be like: ‘O.K., well, that’s your thought. Does anybody disagree? . . . I have to work on going from the student who gets it wrong to students who get it right, then back to the student who gets it wrong and ask a follow-up question to make sure they understand why they got it wrong and understood why the right answer is right.”

Please read the whole article here.

What Can We Do?

What can we do to help our teachers become better? I think for starters we can start the conversation by sending the NY Times article to the principals and the teachers we know. When Lemov’s book comes out in April, buy a copy, read it and lend it to as many teachers as you can. Our schools want to be the best they can be and my experience has been they are receptive to constructive suggestions.

Learning from Our Friends

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

My Rav says that often people learn more from their friends than their Rabbeim. The Rabbi will suggest a course of action from the podium (more Torah, better Tefillah, more Chesed) and we can easily dismiss it as, “that’s easy for the Rabbi to say, after all he’s the Rabbi – but us little guys here have our limitations”. But when we see our friends performing these actions, we ask ourselves “if he can do it, why can’t I”? But it’s important to find our own balance.

Our recent to Eretz Yisroel (EY) trip gave rise to such a learning experience. On previous trips, if someone asked me to take something for them I did so reluctantly because I didn’t want to be hassled on my infrequent trips. Last summer a friend and his family were making the trip and since he knew my daughter was going to seminary, he offered to take a full suitcase for us. He said that with so many people wanting to send stuff, he considered it “almost an aveirah (sin)” to not take the maximum weight. We were greatly appreciative and when I considered the distance between my attitude and his, I realized this was something I needed to work on.

So on this current trip we called many people to let them know we were going and if they needed anything to be taken. Many people accepted our offer and it became a little overwhelming in terms of numbers and weight. We couldn’t take everything so we realized that in the future we should accept requests with simcha, but perhaps refrain from calling so many people.

As a postscript, the trip to EY went amazingly smooth in every respect even with the security check – which was cleared when my wife identified the mysterious object as frozen Chinese food.

Torah, Completeness and Happiness

Posted on by — 51 Comments ↓

My 52nd birthday is on Dec 2nd, so I wanted to share a short thought on happiness to mark the occasion.

The Mishna in Avos (6:1) says:

“Rabbi Meir said, anyone who engages in Torah study for its own sake merits many things. Not only that, but the entire world is worthwhile for him alone. He is called ‘friend’ and ‘beloved,’ he loves G-d, he loves man, he brings joy to G-d, he brings joy to man….”

The Maharal comments on “he brings joy to G-d, he brings joy to man”:

Happiness flows from completeness, just as grief is the result of loss and deficiency. Since this world was created to provide us with opportunities to enrich our lives through Torah, it is clear that Torah brings completeness into our lives and hence to the entire world. A person who engages in sincere Torah study brings joy to G-d for he fullfils the verse, “G-d shall rejoice in His works” by bringing completeness to His works.

So why doesn’t learning Torah give us tremendous happiness?

Perhaps we need to work on internalizing that learning is the ultimate source of happiness and bring the awareness of the completeness to the forefront when we learn.

In fact, any mitzvah has this potential to bring high levels of happiness, if we put ourselves in the right cognitive framework.

Ameilus B’Torah vs Email-Us the Torah

Posted on by — 13 Comments ↓

It is quite clear that Torah is the foundation on which our service of Hashem is built. To the degree to which we know and understand Torah is to the degree to which we can properly serve Hashem. To attain the proper knowledge we need to be Ameil B’Torah – toil in Torah, which means to work hard.

A friend pointed out that in our comfort zone age, Ameilus B’Torah is being replaced with Email-us the Torah. Of course there is tremendous value in the Parsha vorts, but they can not replace the hard work necessary to further our spiritual growth. If you want an online Parsha source which often provides a degree of depth, check out Rabbi Nosson Weisz. In this week’s parsha Rabbi Weisz brings down a Gemora:

“For this let every devout one pray to You at a time when ‘it’ happens.” (Psalms 32:6)

Rabbi Chanina said that ‘it’ refers to a woman; that is to say, even the devout should pray to God to be sure to merit a good wife. Rabbi Yochanan said that ‘it’ refers to burial; the devout should pray to God to merit a proper burial. (Talmud, Berochot 8a)

He then goes on to examine the linkage between burial and marriage as exemplified in this week’s parsha. Check it out.

So here’s a potential weekly Parsha toilage plan:
1) Start with Rabbi Rietti’s outline to get the whole picture of the Parsha
2) Then read the Parsha twice in Hebrew and once with an explanation as prescribed by the halacha. Many people use Rashi to fulfill this requirement, but poskim have stated that you can use the Artscroll Stone Chumash for the explanation.
3) Pick a commentator who goes a little deeper and causes some degree of brain pain.

You can’t email your ameilus but after your ameilus, the emails are even sweeter.

Here is Rabbi Rietti’s outline of Chayei Sarah. You can purchase the entire outline of the Chumash for the low price of $14.

Chayei Sarah
#23 Sarah’s Buriel
#24 Eliezer Finds Wife for Yitschak
#25 Generations of Yishmael

#23 Sarah Dies 127
* Sarah died 127 years old
* Avraham buys buriel site from Efron HaHitee for 400 Silver shekel
* Sarah’s buriel

#24 Eliezer Finds Wife for Yitschak
* Avraham reaches old age
* Eliezer swears to Avraham
* Eliezer’s deal with G-d
* Rivkah comes to the well
* Rivkah enters Sarah’s tent

#25 Generations of Yishmael
* Avraham remarries Hagar (Ketura)
* Six more sons born to Avraham from Hagar
* Avraham gives all his wealth to Yitschak
* Avraham dies 175
* Avraham is buried in Cave of Machpeila
* Generations of Yishmael
* Yishmael dies 137

Connect to the Yankees By Watching the Game, Connect to Hashem By Learning Torah

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

My son sometimes asks me why we have to learn so much Gemora. Yesterday I told him that if you wanted to be a Yankee fan, you would at least have to follow the game. Nobody can claim to be a Yankee fan if they don’t watch the game or at least follow what’s going on.

Aligning ourselves with Hashem, the creator of the universe is a much greater accomplishment than being a Yankee fan. But to connect to Hashem, you must learn His Torah (and doing his Mitzvos). Just like the more you know about the Yankees, the bigger a fan you are, so too, the more we know Hashem’s Torah, the more we are connected to Him. My son heard the moshul and we had a solid learning session.

Vayera is an amazing parsha and the commentaries deal with issues like:
– What exactly caused Hashem to appear to Avraham?
– Was the appearance of the angels a prophetic vision (Rambam) or did the angels actually take human form (Ramban)
– What was the actual sin of S’dom?
– How is the S’dom attitude of “What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours” considered an evil trait?
– Can there be human morals without fear of Hashem?
– If a person erroneously thinks something is permitted – is he guiltless or guilty?
– Why does Hashem have to test us, doesn’t He know the outcome?
– Was the Akeidah test for the sake of Avraham, the nations of the world or the Jewish People?
(Questions culled from Studies in the Weekly Parashah by Yehuda Nachshoni)

Here is Rabbi Rietti’s outline and you can purchase the entire outline of the Chumash for the low price of $14.

Vayera
#18 Three Arabs Visit Avraham
#19 Sdom Destroyed – Lot Saved
#20 Avimelech Takes Sarah
#21 Yitschak is Born
#22 The Akeida

#18 Three Arabs Visit Avraham
* Burning hot day
* Three Arabs
* Sarah laughs
* Avraham bargains to save Sdom & Amora. 50-45-30-20-10

#19 Destruction of Sdom – Lot Saved
* 2 angels go to Sdom
* Sdom destroyed
* Lot escapes with two daughters to cave in Tsoar
* Eldest daughter named her child Moav
* Younger daughter names her son Ben Ami, father of the nation of Amon

#20 Avimelech Takes Sarah
* Avraham went down south; ‘She’s my sister’
* Avimelech, king of Gerar takes Sarah
* G-d warns him in a dream to return Sarah to Avraham
* Avimelech rebukes Avraham – loads him and Sarah with Gifts
* Avraham prays for Avimelech to be cured
* Avimelech, his wife and all his maidservants are cured and gave birth

#21 Yitschak is Born
* Yitschak is born: Celebration of Yitschak’s circumcision
* Sarah persuades Avraham of negative influence of Hagar & Yishmael
* Hagar and Yishmael expelled
* Hagar and son dying of thirst, miracle of water
* Avraham makes peace treaty with Avimelech and general Phichol
* Avraham planted Eshel tree in Be’ar Sheva & named it “Eternal Power”

#22 The Akeida
* The Binding of Yitschak
* Rivkah is born to Betuel, son of Nachor, brother to Avraham

Get An Early Start on Parsha Lech Lecha

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

What sets us apart as Torah Observant Jews is our honor, respect and love of Torah and to continue this relationship we must consistently learn and delve deeper into the Chumash itself.

However, many of us leave the Parsha review for Shabbos itself leaving a huge amount of material to adequately cover. So why not get a jump and start on your review of the Parsha today. After looking at the overview below, pull out a Chumash with Rashi, Ramban or an Art Scroll and start delving. If you have any insights, links or questions that you would like to share, please post them in the comments below.

Rabbi Rietti has be kind enough to allow us to post the outline here, but you can purchase the entire outline of the Chumash for the low price of $14 for yourself and your family. Or check out Rabbi Rietti’s other offerings here.

Lech Lecha
#12 “Go!”
#13 Lot Leaves Avram
#14 5 Kings Battle 4 Kings – Avram Goes to War
#15 Contract at Beyn HaBetarim
#16 Hagar Expelled
#17 Circumcision

#12 “Go!”
* ‘Leave your homeland’
* ‘I Will make you a great nation’
* ‘I will bless you’
* Avram was 75 when he left Charan
* HaShem promised land of Canaan to Avram’s seed
* Avram built an altar
* Avram moved to Bet El and built another altar, called it ‘Shem.’
* Moved south (Negev)
* Famine
* Descends to Egypt
* ‘Say you’re my sister’
* Pharaoh lavishes gifts upon Avram
* Pharaoh takes Sarai
* Pharaoh stricken
* ‘Take her and go!’
* Pharaoh sends royal escort with Avram and Sarai

#13 Lot Leaves Avram
* Avram returns to Negev and finally Bet El
* Conflict between Lot and Avrams’ shepherds
* Avram offers Lot to leave but will remain loyal as brother
* Lot goes to Sdom
* HaShem promises the land of Cana’an to Avram’s seed forever
* HaShem promises Avram his seed will be like the dust of the earth
* Avram walked the entire land of Cana’an to acquire it
* Avram moves to Chevron and builds an altar

#14 5 Kings Battle 4 Kings – Avram Goes to War
* Battle of 5 kings against 4 kings
* Avram saves Lot
* Malki Tsedek blesses Avram

#15 Contract at Beyn HaBetarim
* Divine Vision
* ‘Fear not, your reward is very great!’
* ‘But I’m still childless?!’
* ‘Count the stars!’
* ‘How will I know I will inherit the land?’
* bring 3 calves, 3 goats, 3 rams, 1 dove and 1 pigeon
* Split them in half
* Deep trance, prophecy of 400 year slavery
* ‘You will die very old’
* 4th generation will return to the Promised Land

#16 Hagar Expelled
* Co-wife Hagar
* Hagar expelled, three angels appear to her:
#1 Angel tells her to return to Sarai in submission;
#2 Angel promises Hagar will give birth to a large nation;
#3 Angel names her future child ‘Yishmael’, ‘he will be a wild rebel’
* Yishmael born, Avraham is 86

#17 Circumcision
* 99 years old, ‘Walk before be in simplicity’
* HaShem adds the letter Heh to Avram – Avraham
* HaShem promises to be an Eternal Omnipotent G-d to his seed forever
* HaShem promises Eretz Yisrael will be an eternal heritage to us, forever.
* Avraham commanded in circumcision
* HaShem adds the letter Heh to Sarai – Sarah
* Avraham laughed
* “If only Yishmael would live before you!”
* HaShem promises Avraham that Sarah will mother the Jewish nation
* ‘But I will bless Yishmael as you requested’
* Avraham 99, circumcised entire household, Yishmael was 13

Getting to Know Your Self – Soul Centered Self-Esteem

Posted on by — 24 Comments ↓

We’ve talked in the past about the amazing sefer Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh (In My Heart I Will Build a Sanctuary) and the need to focus our lives and our mitzvah performance on constant awareness and connection to Hashem. The author, Rav Itamar Shwarz explains that if we don’t consistently and consciously focus on the fact that there is a Creator, Who created us, and is constantly exercising His providence on all that happens, we might live a life full of Torah and Mitzvos, but we will, G-d forbid, find that we didn’t achieve their intended purpose of creating a close connection to G-d in this world and the next.

In his third sefer, Da Es Atzmecha (Getting to Know Your Self) Rav Shwarz shifts the focus from Hashem to understanding ourselves. His first major point is that a person must view himself primarily as a soul wearing the garment of the body. He proves that without conscious effort to adopt this view, we will live primarily as bodies that have a soul and identify more with the body than the soul. The result will be that we will not live the amazing Torah prescribed life that a soul-centered perspective brings.

One major application of the soul-centered perspective is self-esteem. Rav Shwarz points out that self-esteem in the world of psychology and in parts of the Torah world is focused on praising the person’s deeds, their character or pointing out that their low self-esteem is based on an illusion. This method is based on the fact that a person is a body with intelligence and emotions and the focus is on what the person does with their facilities.

If a person has the proper soul-centered perspective, they will see that in essence they are a Divine soul as we say each morning “My G-d, the soul You have placed in me is pure”. Our soul is holy, positive and perfectly good and when we identify with this perfection that is our essence, we will automatically attain a positive self-esteem.

Another ramification is that when a person does an aveirah they must still see and identify themselves with their perfect soul. More than getting us to sin, the Yetzer Hara wants lower ourselves and self-esteem after we sin. In addition, the more the person identifies with their essential perfection, the less likely the will come to sin.

Rav Shwarz does an amazing job of bringing very esoteric concepts to a level that we can all understand with very practical examples. As with Bilvavi, Mesillas Yesharim and any Mussar classic, the key is not just to read it, but to keep on reviewing it (with the author’s suggested exercises) so that we can begin to internalize it. It has recently been published in English and I highly recommend you purchase it, as there are significant sections added that are not available in the translation on the web site.

Rav Schwarz will be giving a one day intensive workshop in Woodmere on Labor Day in Hebrew. He still has some speaking slots available on his US visit – see here.